Photo : YONHAP News
A Seoul court has sentenced former National Intelligence Service(NIS) chief Cho Tae-yong to one-and-a-half years in prison for perjury and falsification of official documents, all in connection with former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s martial law declaration in late 2024.
The Seoul Central District Court issued the verdict on Thursday, which is far less than the seven years in prison sought by a special counsel team that had probed the martial law incident.
Cho was found guilty of giving false testimony to the National Assembly and the Consitutional Court by saying he had not received any documents related to martial law from Yoon.
He was also convicted for including such false testimony in official documents issued in the name of the NIS and submitting the them in written testimonies.
However, the court found Cho not guilty of allegations that he had neglected his duties as NIS chief by failing to report Yoon’s plan to declare martial law to the National Assembly despite being aware of it beforehand.
The special probe team had accused Cho of violating the National SecurityAct by breaching his duty of political neutrality, selectively providing CCTV footage of former NIS Deputy Director Hong Jang-won during the martial law period only to the then-ruling People Power Party, while withholding footage of himself from the Democratic Party.
The court, however, acquitted him of the charge.